I have received a chilling message from a friend of mine who lives in Portland, Ore., the city where I was born … a very long time ago.
“We’ve lost the Gorge,” my friend wrote. The wildfires that have consumed much of the Eagle Creek region east of Portland and have jumped the Columbia River into Washington, according to my friend, have consumed much of the Columbia River Gorge. I’ll take his word for it, that the Gorge — one of America’s true scenic treasures — has been scarred deeply by the fire.
The Gorge forms a significant portion of the border between Oregon and Washington along the Columbia River — which the U.S. Coast Guard has closed to all traffic because of the fire.
Oh, man. This is heartbreaking in the extreme.
The picture I’ve attached to this blog shows the fire as seen from Stevenson, Wash., across the river from Eagle Creek.
My friend, though, reminded me also of that the damage need not be permanent. It might last a long time. However — as the saying goes — time can heal the wounds.
Eighty-four years ago, a huge fire broke out along the Coast Range of Oregon. It was the first of a series of blazes that burned near the town of Tillamook, a coastal community. The fires took out many thousands of acres of pristine forestland. The final blaze in the series occurred in 1951. It came to be known to us as The Tillamook Burn.
I remember driving to the beach with my parents and sisters and passing through many miles of scorched timber. The photo below is of the Burn in 1951.
That changed over time. I am proud to say that I played a teeny-tiny role in the recovery of the forest. I was a Boy Scout and my fellow Scouts and I would venture many times in the early 1960s into the forest to plant trees. We were not alone. Other groups did the same the thing: churches, civic organizations, even large families would make an outing of tree-planting in The Tillamook Burn.
Today, I am happy to report — as my friend noted in his message to me — that the forest is back. My friend wrote: “On our way to the coast we often stop at the Tillamook Forest Center. That’s inspiring to me, the way that Oregonians … came to fix a destroyed forest that we enjoy today. We might have to do that again.”
When the fire is extinguished, I believe there will be a concerted effort to do precisely what occurred along the Oregon Coast Range.
The Columbia River Gorge might be “lost” today. One must not bet that it will stay lost forever.
I remember driving through the Tillamook Burn in the 1960s every summer to go the coast, too. I also remember the constant Keep Oregon Green and Keep Oregon Clean campaigns that I grew up with: I remember decorating my room with the little green trees we were given. I know those education campaigns were powerful and generated beliefs in the youngest Oregonians which resound in the people of Oregon to this day.